1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an access control method of a plurality of resources regarding multitenant services.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a web application is provided to each recipient of service such as corporations and organizations via a dedicated server. However, preparing a dedicated server for each recipient of service is not cost effective.
Thus, in recent years, a service called “multitenant service”, which provides a same web application, loaded to a shared server, to a plurality of corporations and organizations has been receiving attention. A “tenant” is a unit of corporations and organizations which have conventionally provided services via dedicated servers.
Although the multitenant service is cost effective compared to a single tenant service where a dedicated server is used for each tenant, the multitenant service has drawbacks involving security. Conventionally, data possessed by a tenant is managed by a dedicated server of each tenant. Since the data of a tenant is physically separated from other tenants, the risk of data leakage is low.
However, regarding the multitenant service, since data of a plurality of tenants is managed by a shared server, the data is not physically separated. Accordingly, the risk of data leakage is high. Thus, according to the multitenant service, a mechanism that logically separates data is necessary in order to prevent data leakage between tenants.
Conventionally, a method that uses a tenant ID as a key for logically separating data is proposed. The multitenant service also uses this tenant ID. In other words, the multitenant service is realized by associating the tenant ID with a user ID, which is an attribute used for identifying a user, and assigning a tenant ID to the data which the tenant possesses.
To be more precise, according to the above-described method, a tenant ID, as well as a user ID, is specified according to user authentication. Then, when data is accessed, access to only the data with a same tenant ID is permitted.
The use of multitenant service contributes to cost reduction compared to when each tenant uses a dedicated server. However, the access control method of the multitenant service which is conventionally proposed is specially designed and developed.
Thus, the data access control method for solving issues of the multitenant service requires various costs associated with dedicated designing, development, administration, and maintenance.
On the other hand, there is known a method using a “role” in the conventional access control method of web application. For example, generally, access to a paid-for web application on the world Wide Web (WWW) requires user authentication and only a user who has agreed to pay for the application can access the web application.
As a control method for such access, a role is defined corresponding to an access right to a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) on the WWW. The access is controlled according to whether the user has such a role.
Further, as a conventional access control method, there is known a method that controls functions executable by a user according to the user authority. For example, execution of a function is allowed depending on whether the user has a role that indicates an administrator. This is because administrator authority is required in the acquisition, generation, and deletion of the user information.